(A/N: Okay, here we go! My friend Jess and I are working on this story together. It's based more on the Phantom movie than the musical since I haven't seen the musical in a few years and the movie is fresh in my head at the moment. This is a sequel of sorts to the movie. Enjoy!)

Many could recall the mystery of the Phantom of the Opera, but very few know what had actually happened. One of whom who did know was Christine Daae, a bright and beautiful girl who was for a large portion of her life "haunted" by what she called the Angel of Music. After a series of several unfortunate events involving both this Phantom and Christine, he finally set her free and hasn't been seen since.

Once the Phantom had set Christine and Raoul free, they had moved to a neighboring city and were married right away. But even after they'd been released from the Phantom's constant eye, Christine couldn't forget him. All she could think about was how much her Angel of Music had cried when he let her go with the man she loved, even though he knew he could never love anyone that much again.

Although Raoul wanted to forget that this monster had ever existed, he couldn't help noticing how distant Christine had been with him since the incident. She had obviously been affected by the Phantom and couldn't stop worrying about him. This secretly made Raoul angry, but he promised himself that he would never bring these feelings up unless she provoked them.

Christine laid silently in the bed she shared with Raoul. She sighed softly and turned onto her side, glancing at the clock on the bedside table. This was normal for Christine, she found it near impossible to fall asleep almost every night. As much as she tried to deny that the Phantom still remained with her, it couldn't be done. Thoughts of him plagued her constantly, denying her any chance to move on and just be normal. Although, to be fair, Christine wasn't sure if it might actually be her fault that the thoughts hadn't left her, after all, did she really want them to?

As though to make her feel more guilty for having this thought, Raoul moved towards her in the dark, wrapping his arm around her waist. She flinched slightly. "Christine? What's the matter?" He asked. "Don't be frightened. It's only me." He kissed her neck softly. Yes, she thought, it was only him.

"Oh... it's," Christine began to tell him, but stopped herself. She couldn't ever get that image of the Phantom crying out of her head, and had never spoken to Raoul about it since they left his lair in the opera house that one last time. "It's nothing..."

Raoul smiled and pulled her closer to him, but Christine used her legs to lightly push him back away from her. She was too overwhelmed to let him touch her, thinking about the man who once gave her a beautiful singing voice and now was probably alone and thinking about her as well.

"Do you... do you ever think about the Phantom?" Christine asked him quietly, wondering if Raoul was as tormented by this memory as she was. "I mean, do you ever wonder what happened to him?"

Raoul let go of her then. "What? Of course not... let's not talk about this Christine." He turned away from her.

Christine turned over to look at him, to try to explain, but he wasn't facing her anymore. "Raoul, please," She said softly. She put her hand on his shoulder and turned him to face her. "I'm sorry. It's just..." She looked away from him, the image of the Phantom crying entering her mind once again, "it's not easy for me to forget. Can't you understand that?"

He frowned slightly. "I've tried to be understanding Christine, but I can't even touch you anymore without you bringing up his name. You married me Christine... Don't you love me?"

"Of course I do, Raoul... but we just can't forget what happened!"

"He wanted us to! He told us to leave and forget all about him and all of the terrible things he did to us, Christine! Why can't you just drop it and get on with your life? It's been a whole year, damnit!" Raoul said loudly. He was angry, but he hadn't really begun to yell at her yet.

"The Angel has never been able to leave my mind... he still haunts me in my dreams and I can't stop thinking about him," Christine replied.

Raoul took a deep breath, knowing what he was about to say would hurt Christine but that it had to be said. "Christine, he's not your Angel. He's a monster and nothing less! And I'm sure whatever terrible things he's going through right now he probably deserves!" He yelled at her, sitting up in bed and moving away from her. Holding his head in annoyance, Raoul tried to calm himself down. He couldn't handle that she was still so hung up about this.

Christine threw the covers off and got out of the bed, now she stood over Raoul, tears in her eyes. "How could you say that? You don't know anything about him! He was tortured his whole life Raoul, by people like you. People with no compassion."

"I have no compassion?" He stood up to meet her. "That's a good one. What about you? You and I are married Christine, married! And instead of spending time with me and loving me all you can talk about is him!"

"You know what; you're just making it worse. How you can say you love me and then not care when I'm so upset about something is just beyond me. I just... I have to go," Christine said as she began to put her shoes on, pulled a robe on over her nightgown, and started to take her coat from the closet.

Raoul ran after her as she went around, collecting her things to go out. "Christine, it's after midnight; you can't just go out now!"

Turning to look him in the eye, Christine searched her mind and his face for any reason at all to stay, but just couldn't find one. But before she turned to leave, she leaned in and kissed him sweetly. "I'm sorry... but this is just something I have to do. Nobody deserves to be alone for their whole lives; not even him. I'll keep in touch."

And with that, Christine stormed outside in her bathrobe, a coat, and a pair of shoes. It was snowing outside in the darkness and the streetlights were out since it was so late at night, but she didn't care. She knew she had to find the Phantom, or at least find out what happened to him.

(A/N: Review? Please? Since this is new, I want to know if you guys have any suggestions or criticisms so this story can get better as Jess and I go. Thanks for reading!)